The Questions No One Asks: What Anticipatory Grief Actually Feels Like Day by Day
1. Anticipatory grief—grieving while your dog is still alive but declining—is exhausting, isolating, and rarely acknowledged. People ask about your dog, but nobody asks about you. What does it feel like to wake up every morning wondering if this is the day? To run constant quality of life assessments? To make impossible decisions while trying to treasure remaining time? When Charlie was dying, I lived in suspended animation between normal life and loss, carrying decision fatigue, hypervigilance, and guilt in every direction. If you're watching your dog decline and don't know when the end will come, this validates what you're experiencing day by day, hour by hour.
When Three Years Feels Like Forever: Why Short Lives Leave Deep Grief
Losing a young dog creates unique grief that's often misunderstood. When Charlie died at just three years old from degenerative joint disease, people said "at least you didn't have him long enough to get too attached." But the depth of pet loss grief has nothing to do with duration. Three years with your heart dog can mean more than a lifetime with another. If you're grieving a dog who died young—from illness, accident, or genetic conditions—you're facing stolen futures, impossible medical decisions, and a depth of love that doesn't measure by years. Your grief is valid, complex, and deserves recognition.